


For You Only

by purpleplatypusbear



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Fluffy, Sapphic, but just super soft, mailee, overcoming emotional baggage together, sunshine goth perfection, they are in love your honor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:08:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27278521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purpleplatypusbear/pseuds/purpleplatypusbear
Summary: Mai hates gifts until she doesn't.
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	For You Only

Gifts are for stupid girls. 

Mai remembered saying that once to an ex who gave her a _seashell_ of all things. It was laying right beside him and he just...picked it up and handed it to her. Naturally, she scoffed at him because hadn't he heard her say the seashell wallpaper at the inn made her nauseous?

And his response was, "I saw it and thought it was pretty. Don't girls like stuff like this?" _Girls._ Not her. He had no idea what she liked, she realized with a sinking feeling in her chest. Three years had passed since they last saw each other and things had changed, they both had, but had he every really known?

Gift giving had always been impersonal for her. She hinted as much as they all sat around the campfire later on. She let herself spill the reality of her childhood: she'd gotten whatever she wanted as long as she behaved perfectly and kept quiet. But what she actually meant was that she _hated_ gifts and the way that she never emoted to them quite like she was supposed to. Like with the stupid seashell that she'd rejected, which frustrated her ex. Still, he kept trying, insisting that with his newly claimed status he could get her whatever she wanted. He meant well. So for a while she let him shower her with gifts, the way that she was used to, keeping a veil over her emotions. Until they ended things.

For a while, she thought she just hated gifts, but she was wrong. Someone was listening to her that night around the campfire. Someone had seen _her_. 

**The first time** Ty Lee gave her a gift, she officially asked Mai to be her girlfriend.

It was a few years after the war had ended, and she'd given up the life that her parents would've chosen for her: as a supportive girlfriend, living in the shadow of the throne. Mai had left in the middle of the night, leaving her ex a letter with her intentions. She smiled at the irony.

Her feet settled in the Earth kingdom of all places, not too far inland from Ty Lee and the other Kyoshi Warriors. Being near her best friend again made her feel less like a fish out of water in the foreign land. They leaned on each other often, the gravity of everything they'd been through with Azula leaving them as the only ones uniquely qualified to comfort the other. Nights that started off with tearful confessions ended with tiny smiles and warm hugs that left cracks in the walls Mai had built up. Without the pressure to be a blank slate, Mai allowed herself to feel. After a few months of letting her emotions flow more freely, she came to the realization of the feelings she had for Ty Lee. It had shocked her that she wanted to kiss her best friend, but it hadn't altered their dynamic at all. Mostly because she was certain that Ty Lee wanted to kiss her too. They'd practically been inseparable since she left the Fire Nation and to all of their other friends, they were basically a couple, but the official word for their feelings was not addressed until that day.

"I wanted to ask you something," Ty Lee said, emboldened and straight to the point. She had just dragged Mai away from her shift at the local flower shop, not that Mai minded. Ty Lee was still holding her hand when they sat at a bench in the nearby outdoor amphitheater. She was vibrating with barely concealed excitement, her lips twitching as she tried to keep a serious face. 

Ty Lee placed a palm-sized box into Mai's other hand. Mai inhaled sharply, a familiar sense of dread lacing up inside of her for the first time since leaving the Fire Nation. She half-smiled, shyly, nervously trying to dissipate the pressure to like whatever gift was in there, so she wouldn't break Ty Lee's spirit. When she opened the box, she saw the most beautiful set of three golden knife hair clips. Her eyes widened.

"You don't have to like them of course, or even accept them. I just...thought they would look nice...on you," Her cheeks turned crimson as she tucked part of her bang behind her ear. 

"What... did you want to ask me?" Mai asked in a voice barely above a whisper, after a few minutes. 

"Oh right, that," Ty Lee blushed even harder. "I wanted to ask if you'd be my girlfriend... officially."

Mai felt her own cheeks heating up as gray eyes bore into her own, unwavering.

"I like you Mai, a lot. And we don't have to rush, if you don't want to. I know how you feel about-"

Gray eyes held pleasant surprise and then fluttered closed as she responded to Mai's lips on hers. She drew Mai so close that they could feel each other's chest rise and fall, her hand coming up to grip Mai's neck affectionately. Mai's stomach flipped in somersaults, in a good way. A tingling feeling coursing through her leaving her body practically singing with joy as an unintentional smile formed on her lips. In a way, kissing Ty Lee made her body feel boneless, much like Ty Lee's chi-blocking left their rivals years ago. She allowed herself to melt into Ty Lee's arms, which encircled Mai into her warmth, not letting go.

**The second time** Ty Lee gave her a gift that was small like the first, but with more meaning. A key with tiny pink hearts and Mai's initials. It wasn't as much flair this time and Mai was okay with that. Almost a year after they started dating, they were sitting around Ty Lee's fireplace drinking spiked hot chocolate and she just pulled a box seemingly out of thin air and handed it to her. Mai felt tears prick the back of her eyes as she held it in her hands; home being a physical location but also a promise, a committment. Ty Lee wanted her to be around. Not to shove her away and keep her quiet, but to love her openly. Homosexuality in the Earth Kingdom wasn't quite as strict as the Fire Nation, but it was still discouraged. But Ty Lee didn't care and neither did Mai, she realized. It was what she wanted too. She wanted to love her loudly. Mai wanted to unbraid Ty Lee's hair at night and wake up every morning entangled in it and her. To wrap her limbs around Ty Lee's soft skin that always smelled like lavender and strawberries. To open her eyes to Ty Lee's sleepy smile and to place soft, lazy kisses onto every inch of each other's skin until one of them had to rise for the day. And frankly, if anyone had a problem with it, they would have a master markswoman and the best chi blocker in the world to go up against. 

**The third time** Ty Lee gave her a gift was completely expected. Ty Lee must have planned for weeks, but she was _horrible_ at keeping surprises from her now live-in girlfriend. When Ty Lee led her out to the Omashu mountains for a weekend getaway, Mai already knew what her answer would be. And when Ty Lee asked _the question_ , Mai had looked at the even tinier box (smaller than the previous gifts) with a frown, her eyebrow quirked in disbelief.

"If there's not a knife in there, I don't want it." She said bluntly.

Ty Lee grinned, her big silver eyes glimmering like two tiny stars as she opened the box to reveal nothing inside. She bent down to reach into her bag, pulling out a black and silver stiletto knife.

"Don't I know you well?" She remarked. 

Mai's face split into a wide smile that reached all the way up to her tawny colored eyes make them smaller than usual. She took the stiletto into her palm, noting how light it felt, like an extension of her arm. The handle had tiny dark red flowers etched into it, alongside her name. Written beside her name was Ty Lee's.

She pulled Ty Lee into a tight hug, dropping her head so that it rested on her shoulder.

"I love it," Mai whispered. 

"Toph helped me make it."

Ty Lee let Mai hug her as long as she wanted to until she pulled away.

"I'll have to tell her that you both did a good job. It's perfect." Mai kept one hand on Ty Lee's shoulder affectionately. 

"Well, go on. Try it out." Ty Lee smiled, waving her hand encouragingly.

"In a bit, but first," Mai pulled out a box of her own. "I have something for you." 

Inside Mai's box was a rose gold ring, the stone in the middle molded into the shape of a carnation. On the sides of the ring were air symbols: a part of Ty Lee that she hadn't gotten to explore yet, but that Mai knew she was proud of. 

"I...love it!" Ty Lee squealed, throwing her arms around Mai and excitedly shifting them from side to side. 

"That was _my_ line," Mai teased. When they separated, she slipped the ring onto Ty Lee's outstretched hand.

"Yes, but _I_ said it with more enthusiasm," Ty Lee teased back.

"Yes, I'll marry you," Mai said laughing a bit as she placed a light kiss on her forehead. 

"Without question."

Her hand flew up to wipe a stray tear from Ty Lee's cheek.

"And I'll marry _you_ ," Ty Lee whispered, leaning her face into Mai's hand. 

"I love you, Ty Lee." 

"I love you too...Oh!" Ty Lee started, grabbed her hand and pulling her towards the entrance. She was practically hopping and Mai had to run to keep in pace with her.

"I can't wait til we get back to tell everyone the good news!"

Mai just chuckled, looking at her beautiful now fiancee, her long braid swinging in the wind, then down at at their joined hands. She felt incredibly lucky, happy, and she knew for certain that she didn't hate gifts. 

**Author's Note:**

> I am SO soft for the sapphic MaiLee pairing! It makes me so sad that there's not many stories just featuring them. I head canon that gifts pretty much are meaningless to Mai. She's a complex character, I wish we knew more about her! But I think Mai would resent receiving gifts because of how it was used to keep her quiet growing up. Also, I love Zuko so much, but that seashell thing...come on lol. So I had to throw that in there and try to tie it to how she felt about gifts from her childhood. And her having this inner monologue of, "am I supposed to actually like this? Is this what other girls like?" because she's emotionally distanced. 
> 
> I wanted her to leave the Fire Nation because again, I think she would dislike politics (since it dominated her childhood and how she could act.) And I wanted her to get payback for Zuko leaving her a note lol. 
> 
> I wanted to show that Ty Lee's gifts were all meaningful because she KNOWS Mai. And Mai having little hints of opening up to her and starts showing her emotions more often (smiling, crying, etc.) Ty Lee being incredibly supportive and letting her do whatever makes her comfortable (like Mai being able to hug Ty Lee as long as she wanted because she initiated and Ty Lee was happy about that.) 
> 
> But especially for the third gift, I wanted to show that Mai was finally comfortable with someone (Ty Lee) enough to express if she doesn't like something (she doesn't get that sinking feeling like in the beginning) and she doesn't have to worry about upsetting Ty Lee. Also huge huge growth for Mai being able to say "I love you" at the end. 
> 
> Anyways I hope this makes sense?? Also sorry if there are typos lol. I just...love MaiLee so much!! And I hope others enjoy! 🥺


End file.
